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Hardwired cover art

Hardwired

By: Walter Jon Williams
Narrated by: Stefan Rudnicki
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Publisher's Summary

Ex-fighter pilot Cowboy, "hardwired" via skull sockets directly to his lethal electronic hardware, teams up with Sarah, an equally cyborized gun-for-hire, to make a last stab at independence from the rapacious Orbitals.
©2006 Night Shade Books (P)2008 Blackstone Audio, Inc.

Critic Reviews

"Hardwired is a tough, sleek juggernaut of a story, punctuated by strobe light movements, coursing to the wail of jets and the twang of steel guitars." (Roger Zelazny)

What listeners say about Hardwired

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars

Straightforward and fun cyberpunk story

As per the title this was a pretty straight forward story following two protagonists together caught up in fighting a corporation. The writing is fluid and fortunately not as deep as books such as Neuromancer or Altered Carbon where each line was deep, metaphorical and critical to the story. In other words, you can lose concentration and not be punished for it in Hardwired. The narrator has a great smooth and chocolatey voice which is very enjoyable. Overall, you won't find any revelations about yourself or any deeper meanings here but it is a good bit of story in itself. I'd say this would be a great introduction to the cyberpunk genre before moving to the more complex and deeper stories it offers.

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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1986

I was impressed with the authors cyberpunk depiction of the future in a book written in 1986.

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  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    3 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars

Another book

I’m sure there are plenty of readers that love this book. I imagine there are a number of haters too. I’m neither, it was a decent story that occasionally trips over its tense. You may think that is very minor and may not have even picked up on it but I did. It bugged the heck out of me. Also the voice actor was, at times, so flat and lifeless it became boring. I’m not blaming the actor but the director who was so gloriously mentioned at the end. I’ve listened to this voice actor before and really liked their work, so I am left to assume that the director is to blame for this performance.
Still I did like the story, 3 stars.

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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Hardwired hardcore cyberpunk!

A great science fiction novel from the time of cyberpunk’s genesis. While, certainly influenced by William Gibson’s Sprawl series Walter Jon Williams depicts a unique vision of a future dystopia that only feels even more relevant today.

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  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
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Solid

A solid cyberpunk romp. Follows genre conventions but still engaging and enjoyable. Fifteen wordsb required.

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